Now anyone can get it for free, legally, and without having to worry about what the download contains. The 2.51GB .mov file comes straight from the source.

2 Player Productions’ reasoning for putting it up on The Pirate Bay is as follows:

We wanted to come here first because we knew the movie would end up here eventually, and the best thing to do seemed to be opening a dialogue. Torrents and piracy are a way of life and it probably won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. There are many people that want to punish you for that, but we have a more realistic outlook on things.

We’ve been there. We’ve all needed to do it at some point. Maybe you don’t have the money. Maybe you want to try before you buy. Maybe you’re pissed at us for premiering the movie on Xbox Live. These are all fine reasons. But if you feel that piracy is, in Gabe Newell’s words, “a service problem,” please consider that we are selling DRM free digital downloads that you can watch in whatever manner you please.

To support the producers, you can buy the $8 DRM-free digital download of the movie at TheMinecraftMovie.com or the $20 DVD from FanGamer.net. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the documentary’s trailer:

There’s no great insight into Minecraft and you won’t come away from it knowing more about Minecraft or Mojang or why Minecraft is so successful, but you will see the personalities of some of those involved and things about the community and the things people have done. If you’re a fan of Minecraft it’s definitely worth watching.

The announcement comes less than a week after Minecraft creator Markus Persson, aka Notch, and entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban donated $500,000 to the EFF for software patent reform. At the time, Persson wrote the following on his blog:

But there is no way in hell you can convince me that it’s beneficial for society to not share ideas. Ideas are free. They improve on old things, make them better, and this results in all of society being better. Sharing ideas is how we improve.